Attention Mobile Developers, Entrepreneurs and Small Business Owners
As the mobiEnthusiast, I purchased my first mobile (.mobi) domain name in 2007. It was an exciting day, and I had a vision for how the world would be able to access the internet from their phone and not be tied to a computer. I thought hard about the kinds of sites that would be worthwhile for people, and what kind of information they would need. Then I stopped in my tracks. I didn’t have the technical skills to pursue my passion for the mobile web.
Flash forward to 2010. I have more development skills, but my design skills are still lacking. My favorite development platform is WordPress, and yet, the options for mobile web have still been limited for most people by a brick wall of a learning curve for xhtml, php and css. WordPress is first and foremost a blogging platform, and so by definition, it is going to show dates for updates and require constant attention to keep it fresh for the search engines.
Finally, last month, I found a developer who has the experience to use device detection and the design skills to make the site look current. As of April 2010, there is a new WordPress Mobile Theme that will allow you to make a full mobile site without the constant updates required for blog posts. If you are a mobile domain name investor, this is a no-brainer. Yes, this is an affiliate link, because I believe so strongly in the product that I think my readers ought to have it, too. If you know me, I am very picky about what I will promote and make sure it works.
I worked very closely with the developer and have tested it myself on one of my sites that is in development. This is a very exciting day for people who want to build full websites for phones who are short in the technical and design skills department.
I’ll keep you posted.
Guest post from Mark Jaffe www.mobilemandala.com
Back when I was dating, the cardinal rule was to never phone after the first date until at least three days had passed. The phone was too personal for such a quick contact and you could be seen as too aggressive or worse, too desperate.
Times have changed. Now it is OK to use your phone for contact immediately after the first date, provided you don’t speak into it. Texting something pithy or witty that night, or the following day, can often be viewed as a positive addition to the dating experience.
Now let’s move to the end of the relationship. Breaking up over the phone is not as good as breaking up in person, but not nearly as bad as – OMG! – breaking up via text. Same phone. Same message. Completely different level of cultural acceptability.
We respond to text messages faster than emails, and BBMs faster than texts. Same Phone. Same message. Same textual appearance. Different accepted practice.
It is OK to whip out the phone (among some dining parties) at a restaurant to perform certain tasks – like looking up a sticking point in the conversation – but not others, like answering an email or playing a game. Same phone. Same amount of time “away” from the conversation. Different effect on your friends.
The list goes on and on. What is it about the mobile phone that generates this long list of rules and practices that is not present on our other media?
The mobile phone is not “the third screen.” It is a very personal, interactive, communication ecosystem of which the screen is just one visual component. The mobile phone has developed, and is continually developing, behavioral mores and cultural norms that have very serious implications for marketers. Violate one of those norms, and the consequences can be severe.
Marketers who continue to treat the mobile phone as yet another screen to “repurpose content” or as a quick campaign add-on to “target a hard to reach audience”, do so at their peril. It will be the brands that actively leverage the behavioral use patterns of the mobile phone and their attendant cultural norms that will succeed.
Marshall McLuhan said “The medium is the message” and he couldn’t be more right as it pertains to the mobile phone. The emerging customs, lifestyle behaviors and prevailing standards associated with the use of the mobile phone are unique, real and significant.
When mobile-specific behavior and culture is taken into account, the mobile phone shines as a brilliant addition to a well crafted overall brand marketing strategy – witness AT&T and American Idol.
When ignored, it can have the potential to undo the hard earned trust of the very same brand. AT&T found that out when it violated customer privacy expectations by using the American Idol list. And worst of all, most of the customers who chose to break up with the AT&T brand as a result, didn’t even bother to inform them by sending a text.
This post is one of the ten reasons why mobile advertising has not reached its potential. You can access the other nine at www.mobilemandala.com
Code for Click to Call
What makes a mobile site special? The ability to code a link so it allows mobile web visitors to click a link that dials a phone number. They’re already on a mobile phone, so why make them take out a piece of paper?
Read more »
Australian professional photographer and small business owner Erwin Groen has harnessed the power of the mobile internet to complement his existing computer website. On ErwinGroen.mobi, the site owner give a preview of his panoramic pictures to a potential buyer. The photos offer a tantalizing glimpse of the beauty of the Australian coast, rainforests, cityscapes, ranges, the country and Australian gardens. It seems almost counter-intuitive to present something so large in scale on so small of a screen, but it works. Not only that, it proves that you can share or market just about anything on a mobile website. Potential buyers can later visit ErwinGroen.com (computer link) for larger versions of the Australia panorama pictures, as well as purchasing options.
All in all, this is a fine example of how a scaled down .mobi site can complement a small business owner’s marketing presence on the internet.
On a side note, my heart goes out to anyone who lost loved ones, was injured, or lost their homes or businesses in the Victoria fires this week. If you have a mobile site to help victims of the fire, please leave it in the comments section, below.
US Election Results Sites – Mobile
Election Day is winding down in the United States with many of the states’ polls closed and others open for just a few more hours. Who will win? The whole world is watching, and so are we — from our mobile phones. The following is a small sampling of mobile website covering the election results. Please feel free to add your own in the comments section.
News Sites
Here are some .mobi sites with election headlines and stories:
Candidates’ Microblogs
If you’d like to read what the candidates have to say in real time, they are both microblogging on Twitter. Here’s the mobile version of their messages:
John McCain’s Twitter Timeline
Barack Obama’s Twitter Timeline
Election Video
Mippin has video in 3gp format for smartphones, including iphones.
Now mobile internet users can get their US Economy news in one place with US-Economy.mobi. The mobile site shows US Economy news stories including economic indicators such as real estate markets, jobless claims, and federal budget news. While the site doesn’t present every story on the topic – that would be impossible – it does offer the reader a snapshot of what’s happening in a mobile format.
Recently a seminar was held in San Jose where a Ms. Cindy Krum was permitted to give a seminar celebrating the death of .mobi. Next, a Ms. Rebecca Lieb repeated the news that .mobi is dead. It is quite clear that the presentation was factually inaccurate and, in fact, could cause harm to clients who follow the advice given. This is my response.
Congratulations to Ms. Lieb on chairing what was undoubtedly an influential panel discussion. It is unfortunate, however, that the presenter, Ms. Krum, who is quoted as an expert in both search engine optimization and mobile websites appears to have provided misinformation to the conference attendees.
Don’t use mobi for SEO
From a search engine optimization perspective, she warns attendees about duplicate content. It so happens that Matt Cutts of Google has indicated different tld’s are not penalized for duplicate content (February 1, 2008). Additionally, creating a site with a m. in front of the domain name creates a subdomain, which does not receive the pagerank of the root domain. Additionally, the m. does not appear as a mobile site in the zone file and is not recognized as a mobile site. As a mobile blogger, I have first hand experience with numerous .mobi sites on the first page of Google and Yahoo, so it is incorrect to state that .mobi is bad for SEO.
Transcoding is Foolproof
Ms. Krum advocates the use of transcoding, but in reality, this is problematic. In a recent blog post right here on mobiEnthusiast.mobi, I demonstrated that sites that are transcoded are prone to be displayed incorrectly, especially if they rely on tables for design. The demonstrated site was a professional style site with a dark gray background, and the transcoded version appeared as chunks of gray blocks interspersed with random-looking text. Furthermore, there is no guarantee that the mobile provider will take the mobile directions into consideration when rendering the site. For example, both Sprint PCS in the United States and Vodaphone in the UK require mobile website owners to register their sites with a whitelist to avoid ignoring the header information. Dot mobi sites, however, are automatically whitelisted because it is assumed that they will be properly formatted for mobile devices. How many other carriers will institute random transcoding when their customers start complaining that the websites are not loading properly? How long of a delay will there be before a client’s non-.mobi mobile website is listed on the whitelist?
iPhone Killed Mobi
The argument that iPhone has killed .mobi is refuted by Apple itself, as many .mobi sites are listed on the Apple apps site. I have an iPhone and regularly use it to access the internet, and here is what happens: non-mobile sites are shrunk down to the point where they are unreadable. Using a pinching motion, the site can be made smaller, and using a reverse-pinching motion makes the type on the page larger. It’s actually quite time consuming, much like zooming and dragging Google maps to find the correct destination.
Mobi is Dead
Additionally, .mobi sites are being adopted daily by multinational corporations. You can see a list of them on Why.mobi and mtld.mobi/showcase. If .mobi is dead, why would small businesses and established companies, most notably banks, financial institutions, automobile manufacturers, luxury brands and other consumer goods companies spend time and money promoting them? They wouldn’t. In this tight economy, businesses are spending money on things that work, and .mobi works.
The simple fact is that .mobi and the standards behind it is alive and well. The more people use mobile phones to access the internet, the more they will realize that a properly designed .mobi site is quick, convenient, and marketable – moreso than any of its counterparts.
